Comic Review: The Eagles of Rome by Enrico Marini

As I've said before, I tend to have very high standards when it comes to historical fiction.  I'm especially excited whenever I find a comic book that lives up to my standards.  That brings us to the comic we'll be reviewing today.  We're taking a look at The Eagles of Rome by Enrico Marini.

The Eagles of Rome takes places during the reign of Emperor Augustus.  The Roman Empire is seeking to expand its boarders into Germania.  Towards this end, a young Germanian prince has been sent to Rome to be fostered as part of a peace agreement with the Cherusci tribe.  To his people he is Ermanamer, but the Romans have given him a new name: Arminius.  Arminius has been sent to live with Titus Valerius Falco and his son Marcus.  The comic follows Arminius and Marcus as the grow into men and join the legion.  As they grow, Arminius finds himself increasingly drawn to the land of his birth.  Marcus and Arminius are going to find themselves on opposite sides of a great conflict.  In time it will be known as the Battle of Teutoburg Forest. 

Before we begin, I should note that The Eagles of Rome is not a finished series.  As of this writing, only five volumes have been published.  It's also pretty obvious that the story is not over yet as of volume five.  With that having been said, let's begin our review.

Like I've said, this book is very well researched.  Granted, there are a few minor liberties taken here and there.  The biggest being that Marcus and his family are completely fictional.  I'm fairly certain that Marini did this to give a Roman perspective on the happenings.  It is also through Marcus that we get to see Arminius grow and change.  This is very much the story of Arminius as witnessed by Marcus.  Fun fact, Enrico Marini wrote a Batman comic for DC Comics.  It was part of a program they did to hire famous European comics writers to write for some of their most famous characters.  Anyway, the design Marini used for Bruce Wayne is almost identical to the one he uses for Marcus.  Naturally, some have joked that Marcus is Bruce's several times great-grandfather.  I'll leave it for you to decide.

Now, I should mention that this comic does have a fair bit of nudity and sex to it.  I'd argue that this is fairly accurate to the time period.  Ancient Rome was pretty shameless, by modern standards, when it came to sex.  Granted, medieval Christian writers did tend to exaggerate this to an extent, but we do have archaeological and historical accounts to backup these views.  We also see several older men who are clearly in carnal relationship with younger eliminate men.  Pederasty war par for course in Ancient Rome.  At one point we hear the Romans taunting the Germanians with insults like "Woden sucks cock!"  To which the Germanians reply in kind.  This might sound anachronistic, but Roman graffiti is cover with such insluts, so points for accuracy.      

I did like how the parts set in the red-light district showed the seedier side of Roman life.  In a lot of ways, living in Rome was like living in a third-world country is you were a plebeian.  We see a lot of buildings made out of bricks and wood, and this is historically accurate.  Marble was reserved for the rich and elite.  Commoners had to make do with other materials.  Furthermore, the marble buildings we do see often contain quite a bit of paint and color to them.  Again, this is indeed how the Romans decorated their buildings.

Another mark towards historical accuracy is the way relationships are portrayed.  Marriages are done almost exclusively for diplomatic purposes, with marrying for loving being almost unheard of.  In the grand scheme of things, marrying for love is a fairly recent development.  This creates issues when Marcus falls in love with Pricilla, who has been betrothed to Quintus Aemilius Lepidus.  He is the grandson of Lepidus of the Triumvirate.  He's got a massive chip on his shoulder as he struggles to regain his family's good name.  He also isn't too fond of Emperor Augustus.  He's aware that Pricilla and Marcus are in love, and frequently takes his anger out on both of them.  As such, when the Battle of Teutoburg Forest happens...well, I won't spoil that.  Let's just say that Lepidus gets what's coming to him. 

Things only get trickier when Marcus and Pricilla have a son together, whom they name Titus.  It might seem odd that they named him after Marcus' abusive father, but there were only about seventeen common names in Ancient Rome.  Also, it was common practice to name children after other family members.  Lepidus thinks that Titus is his child, though he does connect that dots after a few volumes.  Strange that it took him that long, given that he is a redhead, Pricilla has light brown hair, and Titus has black hair like Marcus.  Also, little Titus does look quite a bit like Marcus.  As an aside, I always thought that Lepidus looked kind of like a younger version of Emperor Nero.  Perhaps this was intentional, to further underscore that Lepidus is not a nice fellow.

Arminius also finds love.  He gets married to a chieftain's daughter named Thusnelda.  Her father, Segestes, is seeking to marry is daughters to powerful Romans to forge alliances.  Fortunately, Thusnelda and Arminius are very much in love with each other.  Marcus' mother Albinia was also a chieftain's daughter who was married to a powerful Roman.  Arminius even considers tempting Marcus to join the rebellion by appealing this his Germanic heritage. However, he decides against it, reasoning that Marcus is too loyal to Rome.  As another aside, you'll notice that there are a few Romans wearing pants in Germania.  The Romans despised pants a barbarian clothes.  However, the legions stationed in Germania eventually had to admit that the barbarians were onto something; especially during the winter.

I should probably also talk about Marcus' father.  Titus Valerius Falco would probably be considered abusive by modern standards.  He constantly berates Marcus for his unmanly hobbies such as poetry and carving wooden figurines.  There's even a point in the first volume here he rounds up all of Marcus' figurines and burns them in-front of Marcus.  He also puts Marcus and Arminius through some very harsh training by hiring a former gladiator named Volcanus to train them.  Despite all of this, he would be considered a good father by Roman standards.  In fact, Augustus even applauds him for instilling fortitude in his son and foster-son. 

There's several times throughout the comics that Marcus has seemingly prophetic dreams.  For example, right before the Battle of Teutoburg Forest, he had a dream where an eagle and a wolf getting into a fight, and the wolf kills the eagle.  Obviously, the eagle is Rome, the wolf is Germania, and this symbolizes the Roman's coming defeat.  Of course, there is debate about whether if the dreams were really prophecies, or if it was all coincidence.  I'm inclined to think that there is something supernatural is at work.  Still, it is a minor potentially supernatural happening in an otherwise straight-up historical fiction comic.

I can't forget to talk about the art.  It is very well done.  It is made using watercolor, and looks absolutely gorgeous because of that.  It is very well drawn, and easily rivals anything that you'd find at Marvel or DC Comics.  In fact, it is better than a lot of the art on the current stuff they're putting out, but I digress. 

The big battle has already happened by the time volume five ends.  However, it is pretty obvious that the story isn't over just yet.  The battle is pro tray in all its glory and horror.  What made Arminius such a powerful advisory was that he'd been trained in Roman fighting style.  He could combine the best aspects of Rome and Germania, and he knew all of the Romans' weaknesses.  As I've said, fostering foreign princes was a common practice during the time.  The Romans figured that, if they introduced foreigners to their culture, the foreigners would grow to love Rome.  This would make conquering new territories much easier.  They never dreamed that one of these princes might stab them in the back. 

It goes without saying that Arminius is going to survive until the end of the story, and I'm fairly certain Marcus will as well.  I'm not really sure what's going to happen next, but I can't wait to find out.  There's usually a wait of a couple of years between volumes while Marini works on other projects.  Still, hopefully the wait won't be too bad. 

So there you have it.  The Eagles of Rome is one of the best historical fiction comics out there.  I cannot recommend it enough.  Well, I think that's everything I need to say for now.  I will see you guys next time.